Ad industry up in arms over Apple’s new anti-tracking feature

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Ad industry up in arms over Apple’s new anti-tracking feature

Advertising groups worry that the latest version of Safari, Apple’s internet browser, will “sabotage the economic model for the internet”.

Major advertising organisations say they are “deeply concerned” with Apple’s new version of its browser Safari, saying it will hurt advertising business online and make advertising more “generic and less timely and useful”, AdWeek reported.

According to the Guardian, the latest version of Safari will include a new feature called “intelligent tracking prevention”, which will prevent websites from tracking users around the net. This will block the types of ads that tend to follow users across the various sites they visit.

Apple defended the feature, saying that current tracking practices are “so pervasive that it is possible for ad tracking companies to recreate the majority of a person’s web browsing history”, without the users’ permission, MarTech Today reported. The company also said that the feature would no block ads or interfere with “legitimate tracking” on the sites users visit, and that ads placed by web publishers would appear as normally.

The latest version of Safari is included in Apple’s mobile operation system iOS 11, released today, and macOS High Sierra, which will be available for Mac computers next Monday.

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